Painful But Necessary
by thebigmacattack
Summary: In this one-shot, Ben learns a lesson about stealth and friendship. Unfortunately for him, it's rather embarrassing and painful… XD


This is an odd little story I wrote long ago as a challenge by a fellow fanfic writer on the TFN forums. It came out completely different from what she, and I for that matter, was expecting. It was a humor story. Yes, it amazed me too.

I still headdesk over some of the more clunky prose in this thing. It dates back to 2006!

Anyway, hope somebody here enjoys it. It was intended to be canonical to the Expanded Universe books, but I am aware of a potential canon hiccup in that Nelani Dinn may be too young. Anyway, it can't be helped now.

The challenge, if anyone wants to repeat it:

**The Challenge**

Write a story with Jacen and Ben.  
-Jacen must be Ben's master (Sith or Jedi, doesn't matter). Ben can be any age.  
-Jacen must teach Ben an important lesson about the Force (actual skill or just philosophy, doesn't matter).

The following terms or phrases must be used:  
-You could have fooled me  
-Kowakian monkey-lizard

Now here is the tricky part:  
-Must be 2,000 words long (give or take 100). Must be a one-shot.

I bolded the words/phrases I had to use. Maybe it could give someone inspiration how to incorporate them into his/her own fic?

* * *

**Painful But Necessary**

**37 ABY**

**Dramatis Personae**

Ben Skywalker, Jedi Apprentice (male human)  
Jacen Solo, Jedi Master (male human)  
Nelani Dinn, Jedi Apprentice (female human)

_"Neh heh, heh heh heh ah."_ The high-pitched squeal rang out from the trees.

"Go ahead, keep laughing! I'll catch you yet, you laughing son of a—" a young red-haired boy shouted from the ground.

"Ben, remember what I said about your language." Jacen Solo scolded as he watched the situation unfold.

"Sorry, Master," Ben said.

"Now, try again. This time in a different way," Jacen said patiently. This was supposed to be a simple lesson for the young man, but it had quickly transformed into a terrible ordeal which Ben was struggling to pass.

"Okay." Ben nodded; he stretched his arms and legs briefly, and did five jumping jacks, before he executed his new well-thought-out plan.

"THAT'S IT! I'M COMING FOR YOU! LET'S SEE YOU LAUGH NOW!" Ben tore up the nearest tree where the incessant call was coming from, and Jacen slammed his right hand into his face. Okay, this wasn't so well thought-out after all.

"No, no, no, _no_. Not that way." Jacen murmured as Ben tore up the tree, not knowing that the **Kowakian monkey-lizard** was taunting him.

"I'm getting you this time," Ben hissed as he climbed the trunk, stepped onto a branch, and then jumped up to another one. "Let's see you laugh once I've got you in a death grip…"

Suddenly, he saw it. The monkey-lizard saw him, and its ear-bleeding laugh suddenly stopped.

"Okay, I'm not going to hurt ya…" Ben whispered, attempting to sound calm and soothing. Unfortunately, his mind had been infected by the call, and his voice sounded threatening, insane, even. Deftly, the lizard leapt to a higher branch and Ben's grab missed. Suddenly, the branch Ben had leapt to snapped. He fell to the ground and would have broken something if it weren't for Jacen's quick reaction.

"Ow…" Ben moaned, rubbing his back after yet another lengthy fall.

"I told you, try something else," Jacen said as he sat down next to Ben.

"I did…" Ben whined, but before Jacen could answer, a girl of roughly fourteen years appeared in the small forest opening. In her hands was a monkey-lizard.

"I have another one, Master," Nelani Dinn said. The monkey-lizard's call was thankfully stifled, for Nelani's hands were covering its mouth. Also, the lizard was defanged; otherwise the attempt would be disastrous.

"Good job, Nelani," Jacen congratulated. Nelani nodded before taking off into the forest again.

"Nelani…" Ben growled, shaking his fist at her retreating form.

Jacen suddenly turned to Ben as if there hadn't been an interruption. "Now, Ben, look how Nelani's catches them. You don't see, or hear her, shouting at the trees like a crazed nerf-herder who's spent too many hours in the sun."

"I thought you could be faster than them," Ben said.

"You can. You just can't give them any warning. This is actually extremely easy," Jacen said.

"You **could have fooled me**," Ben replied.

"You must be sneaky, Ben. You can't give them any sign you're onto them, or they jump out of the way and you fall again," Jacen said.

"You forgot the part about him looking like an idiot, Master," Nelani said, reappearing. In her hands was another monkey-lizard.

"I believe this is yours, Ben," Nelani said, tossing the lizard right at Ben. He attempted to catch it, but the lizard landed short and tried to crawl away.

Jacen grabbed it a moment later, dangled it, and put it back inside his box of defanged Kowakian lizards. "Great job, Nelani. That's your eighth one," Jacen said, nodding, with a small smile on his face.

"That's all of them, correct?" Nelani asked.

"Yes. That's enough for today. It's getting dark out and I don't want you two to be completely exhausted chasing after my pets," Jacen said, securing the box of chattering monkey-lizards.

"Okay." Nelani nodded and headed toward the temporary home of the Jedi.

Then, as Jacen turned his back to her, she turned around and stuck her tongue out at Ben.

"Nelani…" Ben growled again.

"Coming Ben?" Jacen asked from up ahead.

"Yes, Master," Ben said, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He took off after his two companions, wondering how he was going to get Nelani back for his embarrassment today.

* * *

He couldn't rest. Not while the embarrassment continued to haunt him. That was why, at midnight on Kowak, he was lying awake. Unfortunately, Ben had been here merely a week and was already tiring of the place. This whole 'year-long' meditation from the 'problems' of the galaxy had quickly transformed into a year-long torture session where he was sweating profusely every day and continuously being defeated and made fun of by Nelani. He wanted revenge and somehow he was going to find it, before his will was beaten out of him and—

_"Neh heh heh heh ah."_

_Oh no_, he thought. Opening his eyes, a frightened, tortured expression came onto his face.

_"Heh heh heh neh ah ah heh."_

_No! They've come to torture me in my sleep!_ Ben thought. He sat up in bed, shoving blankets off of him. He gritted his teeth, his tired, aching eyes searching all around the room for the monkey-lizard.

_"Neh ah ah neh heh."_

_That's it! He's mine. No one disturbs my sleep, especially monkey-lizards. Those little devils…_ Ben walked carefully out of his bedroom and quickly saw that there was no one moving in the other rooms. They were sleeping peacefully.

_I'm going to catch him, Jace, and I'll show you how stealthy I can be._

A wide, sly grin appeared on Ben's face, as he tip-toed out of the rented house and promptly searched for a way to get up on the roof. He quickly found a tree and, wrapping his pajama-clad legs around it, crawled up, hung on the branch over the house, and set down quietly on the house's shingles.

_Where are you, you little dream-killer?_ he thought. Suddenly, he saw it. The monkey-lizard had no idea Ben was coming. Walking carefully, his grin grew wider and his eyes grew more and more wanting as he edged up on the monkey-lizard. He was going to prove he wasn't incompetent. He reached out and grabbed the monkey-lizard. 

_Ah ha! Gotcha!_ Ben thought, and he stared the monkey-lizard in the eyes. He covered the lizard's mouth. _Oh man, I can't wait to show this guy to smart-boy Jacen and that jerk Nelani—_

That was when something rather unexpected happened.

* * *

_"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"_ the scream rang out in the darkness, and Jacen Solo rose out of bed, wondering what had just happened. He was suddenly alerted by the sound of something crashing outside. Coming to his senses entirely, he rose up and rushed outside, to the door, to find Nelani already there. "What's going on? By the scream and the crashing, sounds like someone's being attacked," Jacen asked.

"No, it's just Ben," Nelani responded as she rubbed her eyes. Ben was running around the yard screaming _"Get it off ow ow ow ow it hurts let me go ow ow ow—"_

"Oh. No big deal. Take it off for me, please." Jacen said, yawning and retreating toward the building.

"Why me?"

"You know how to fix that. I'm too tired, and the wild ones require much care in handling. I'll give him credit for catching one, though. They're much harder than the tame ones, although the reason I'm using tame ones is for situations like these… but he's passed his test." With that, Jacen stepped inside.

* * *

"But Master…" Nelani looked from Ben, to the closing doors. Sighing, she murmured, "Fine. I'll go save the idiot's finger."

She walked over to Ben as he ran around in circles.

"I'm coming, you idiot. Stop thrashing around like a speared gundark and let me help." She grabbed Ben and forced him to remain in place. Balancing his arm carefully and making sure it was still, Nelani first drove it slightly inward, then lifted the teeth out almost straight-up.

"Ow… thanks. How did you do that?" Ben asked, shaking his finger and making sure it was still attached.

"Quite simple, actually. Maybe if you listened to Master's lessons occasionally—" That was when it happened, _again_.

Nelani stopped speaking, closed her mouth, and her eyes widened to the size of saucers. "OUCH!" she cried.

Ben looked at her left hand, and saw that she had been bitten much like he had. "Who wasn't paying attention _now_?" Ben taunted, looking smug as he watched Nelani instinctively thrash her hand around, trying to shake the monkey-lizard off.

"Maybe if-ow-I didn't have to-ow-lecture you on-ow-everything maybe-ow-I-ow-wouldn't be-ow-stuck like this. Ow," she replied, in the calmest voice she could muster, which wasn't much, for to Ben she sounded quite hysterical.

"Oh well. See ya around." Ben said, and he attempted to strut away, swaggering in Nelani's humiliation.

_"Oh no you-ow-don't!"_ Nelani called out forcefully.

Ben instantly halted mid-step. Looking around, he saw a very red and furious Nelani.

"You're not leaving me like-ow-this!" she said, holding out her left hand, which had the monkey-lizard hanging attached.

Ben wasn't sure what made him walk over. It was probably that fact Nelani would beat him up the next day, he would think later. "All right, all right." He grabbed Nelani's left hand and began yanking on the monkey-lizard.

"Nononono-owowowowow-no not like that!" Nelani yelped, and Ben stopped. "You'll have to push his teeth into my hand slightly, and then yank him out. Like I did with you," Nelani instructed, biting her lip as she spoke.

"Oh, like this?" Ben began pushing the lizard in.

"No-_Ouch_! Not that far!" she shouted, and Ben was surprised to see tears appear in Nelani's eyes.

_Nelani actually has feelings?_ he thought. Perhaps it was the tears that made him say, "Sorry. You mean like this?" He then lifted the lizard out of her hand and quickly threw it into the forest, where the monkey-lizard's head bonked off a tree and fell unconscious to the ground.

"Yeah, like that." Nelani breathed.

Ben sighed with relief. At least Nelani wouldn't kill him for— He was suddenly slapped in the face. "Ow!" he cried, rubbing his left cheek. "What was that for?"

"That was for trying to walk away from me like that."

Then Ben felt himself being yanked into Nelani, he initially tried to struggle but then let Nelani's arms embrace him, and suddenly he felt comfortable, safe. He felt a faint moist touch on his cheek—

That was when she let go. "That was for changing your mind and helping me. You could have left me there, and you didn't," she said.

Ben rubbed his forehead, and realized he had been kissed-_kissed_, for Force's sake-by a _girl_. He half-wanted to immediately rub it away, but then thought better of it. He didn't know why. "You know what? You're not so bad." Ben said with a smile.

"And when you're not acting like wampa-bait you're actually tolerable," Nelani replied.

"Friends?"

"Friends."

They shook on it.

* * *

A Jedi Master watched from the window, and witnessed the scene with pride. Walking away from the window, he thought, _Well, well, Ben. You just learned a lesson about friendship and kindness today._

The Jedi Master walked away, a knowing smile on his face, confident that Ben's future as a Jedi Knight had just been set. Who knew? Maybe someday Nelani and Ben would be closer than friends. Jacen could sense children, amazing deeds, acts of kindness and heroism from the two together. But that was a future uncertain, and best left forgotten. The future was always changing, and some things that would be better left unsaid.

Maybe Ben would someday need this lesson. Jacen didn't know why, but somehow he just knew. But those were thoughts he would ponder in the morning as Ben and Nelani continued training. Right now, he needed sleep. That is, if those children didn't stumble on anything—

"AH! Master, help us! There's this big hairy forest monster coming!" Jacen heard Ben call.

"What?" Jacen couldn't help but smirk. How ridiculous was that assertion, what kind of damn fool did they take him for—

That was when he heard a long, deep roar.

Jacen decided he would worry about the future after he made sure his students would live to see it. He rushed outside. Sometimes, a Jedi Master's work is never done, even if it was at ungodly hours of the morning.

Unfortunately.


End file.
